The earliest examples of written chinese was between 1500-950 BC. It uses a logographic system of writting which is a series of symbols that represents a complete word or phrase. Chinese writting was orginally written as characters called hànzi. The characters resemble people and animals. Characters are written in 12 different strokes:
Many symbols or "pictograms" started to be written on pottery and jades. These symbols are thought to be family or clan emblems that identify the ownership or provenance of the pottery or jades. The oracle bone script was used from 1500 to 1000 BCE. The characters of this script would be written onto turtle shells and animal bones. These would be then heated to see the cracks of the drawlings, The Shang court used these cracks to read and determine "future" events.
Chinese Written Language
The earliest examples of written chinese was between 1500-950 BC. It uses a logographic system of writting which is a series of symbols that represents a complete word or phrase. Chinese writting was orginally written as characters called hànzi. The characters resemble people and animals. Characters are written in 12 different strokes:
Many symbols or "pictograms" started to be written on pottery and jades. These symbols are thought to be family or clan emblems that identify the ownership or provenance of the pottery or jades. The oracle bone script was used from 1500 to 1000 BCE. The characters of this script would be written onto turtle shells and animal bones. These would be then heated to see the cracks of the drawlings, The Shang court used these cracks to read and determine "future" events.
http://www.ancientscripts.com/chinese.html
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